Minneapolis Net Zero House

When the Hanson's built their first home in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, back in 2006, they were not trying to get to Net-Zero. The concept had hardly been on anyone's radar over a decade ago. But they wanted it to be as energy-efficient as possible. So, they installed spray foam insulation, geothermal, and solar panels. "It was basically like taping energy efficiency post-it notes onto a house," says Mark. 

The problem was that their builders did not look at the home and site holistically, missing opportunities that would have made the home more functional. As they discovered after living in it, it was a much bigger house than two people needed. They also had a long commute to and from work each day.

When they decided to move closer to the city to reduce their commute times, they were well versed in sustainable home building and design. Their thinking had evolved, technologies had improved, and they got a second shot at building their dream home. This time, they hit the trifecta, with the admirable certifications and awards of LEED Platinum (version 4), Minnesota Greenstar Home (Gold), and Living Building Challenge Zero Energy Certification. How did that happen? They set goals and thoughtfully planned the design of the home.

So, what was the driving force behind these lofty goals? As Mark says, he has always lived by the axiom, "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." He continues, "I just believe we should leave this world a better place than we found it."

Having been concerned about the environment and climate change for a few decades, they set out to do what they could with their home. They asked themselves, "What can we do? We can build a house that meets our values and morals." And that they did.

To meet their stormwater management goal, the egress windows in the basement have large window wells, with boulders as a retaining wall, and native plants for soaking up runoff water. The large basement windows also let in light and warmth from the southern sun in the winter. 

The bigger component, though, is the rain garden swale on their property. With the help of the city, they were allowed a few curb cuts to let stormwater from the street run onto their property. The small bit of grass that they do have is tall fescue, a species of turf that does not have to be mowed or watered as much as conventional turfgrass. 

Building on Kate's training in holistic health, they designed a beautiful meditation circle in the back yard. 

The Coolest Car on the Planet

We would shortchange our readers, though, without covering one of the coolest things on earth right now: Mark's Tesla.

The backstory: Ed Hawkins, a professor in the United Kingdom, wanted to help people visualize global warming. So, he figured out a way to graphically represent the changes in global temperatures over time. Accomplished by using stripes, each year has its own stripe. Blue is colder than average, and red is warmer. Mark spotted this artistic rendering of global warming from a news article that showed a group of meteorologists wearing ties that sported these stripes. That gave him an idea: could his Tesla have those same stripes? He called up the professor to make sure it was okay with him, called the car shop to see if they could do it, and…voila, an electric vehicle that speaks volumes.